Yelp authorizes additional $250M stock buyback

As previously reported, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak downgraded Yelp (YELP) to Underweight from Equal Weight as he identified three building revenue headwinds that he believes will lead to negative revisions and underperformance of the stock. First, Nowak sees the increased flexibility of Yelp's new non-term agreements leading to lower spend per customer. Second, he sees pricing compression risk given that his ad pricing analysis shows Yelp's average cost per click is still over four times higher than Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB). Third, he expects Yelp's declining user base to further hold back spend per customer. Nowak cut his price target on Yelp shares to $29 from $31, noting that his revised FY19 and FY20 EBITDA estimates are now 2% and 6%, respectively, below consensus.

01/10/19

01/10/19DOWNGRADE

Fly Intel: Top five analyst downgrades

Catch up on today's top five analyst downgrades with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Lockheed Martin (LMT) downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. 2. JetBlue (JBLU) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan with analyst Jamie Baker lowering his price target for the shares to $18 from $20. 3. Weatherford (WFT) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital with analyst Daniel Boyd saying the stock represents a "call-option on the oil cycle," but sees that option "suffering from time decay" and an adverse macro environment. 4. Yelp (YELP) downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley with analyst Brian Nowak saying he identified three building revenue headwinds that he believes will lead to negative revisions and underperformance of the stock. 5. Dollar Tree (DLTR) downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer with analyst Rupesh Parikh saying he now views shares as fully valued and sees the case for upside as less attractive. This list is just a portion of The Fly's full analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here.

02/04/19

GSCO

02/04/19INITIATIONTarget $42GSCOBuy

Yelp initiated with a Buy at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng started Yelp with Buy rating and $42 price target. Yelp's transition to non-term advertising contracts should increase trial activity and drive growth in paid advertising accounts, Ng tells investors in a research note. He also believes the company should more effectively gain market share from other forms of direct advertising, particularly as U.S. advertising spending on directories is "nearly depleted." Further, new product features, such as a Request a Quote in home services and Nowait & Reservations in restaurants, should help Yelp accelerate revenue growth in those verticals, says the analyst.

02/04/19

02/04/19INITIATION

Fly Intel: Top five analyst initiations

Catch up on today's top five analyst initiations with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Yelp (YELP) initiated with a Buy at Goldman Sachs while Groupon (GRPN) was initiated with a Neutral, and Match Group (MTCH) and Shutterfly (SFLY) were initiated with a Sell. 2. eHealth (EHTH) initiated with an Outperform at Evercore ISI. 3. Okta (OKTA) initiated with an Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. 4. Lonestar Resources (LONE) initiated with an Outperform at Cowen. 5. Kopin (KOPN) initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg. This list is just a portion of The Fly's analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here.